There are 37 species of cats, 7 are considered Big Cats: Lion, Tiger, Leopard, Jaguar, Snow Leopard, Clouded Leopard and Cheetah. The other 30 species are smaller wild cats including the Domestic Cat Felis silvestris catus.

Almost every adult cat in the game can be tamed as Hunter Pets. These guys are apex predators and it makes complete sense that they would make great battle companions. (note: DO NOT try this at home. Wild cats are not domesticated. They can and will kill you if you try to keep them as pets. They are WILD animals - unpredictable and dangerous. Protect them and appreciate them in their natural habitats. P.s. real life cats can't respawn or be rezzed - most of these cats are endangered. )

Tigers

Stranglethorn really is a perfect environment for Tigers. These guys are stalk and ambush predators who are solitary by nature. They are native to India, China, Russia and S.E. Asia.

Tiger (Panthera tigris)

The White Tigers come from a recessive gene that only shows itself when you breed specifically for it. The problem comes when you have to inbreed related individuals to keep the recessive trait (white fur) showing. This can lead to other, less desirable, recessive traits also showing up. Animals can have weaker immune systems, physical deformities or other genetic errors. #britishroyalfamily.

Tigers got an upgrade in look in MoP and the new skin and colors are amazing.

The little additions, the single lines that blizzard slips into the game, sometimes seeming almost throwaways, can be very visceral. I adore this one-line descriptor about your interaction with the cat. It both upholds a very "cat" attitude and gives you a moment to wonder what her fur feels like. I feel it in my gut and enjoy the game just a little more.

Lions

Lion (Panthera leo)

Lions, along with tigers, are the largest of the cat family. They differ from tigers in that they are sexually dimorphic- males look different from the females and males are also larger. The open grasslands of the Barrens are a perfect ecological environment for lions. The prides, especially around the rare-elite Humar, are a wonderful representation of the lion social structure. There are white lions like Echeyakee out there, but from what I could find no black lions have been seen.

Leopard

These spotted cats seem to be an amalgam:Based on their size I want to call them Leopards, or Jaguars, but their spots are solid, more like a Cheetah's. But cheetahs are too slender and delicate to be the in-game cats. Hmm...

Leopard (Panthera pardus)

Jaguar (Panthera onca)

Cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus)

Cougar - Mountain Lion - Puma

Pumas - these guys live in all different environments and while they may look like lions, their morphology and socialization is different. Pumas can also purr, lions and tigers cannot.

Cougar (Puma concolor)

Lynx (Lynx lynx)

These somewhat shy cats are native to Europe, Asia and North America. There are 4 species, including the bobcat, and all are characterized by a short tail, tufts of black hair on the tips of its ears, large, padded paws for walking on snow and muttonchops of fur framing the face. They can be medium brown, to gold, to almost white in color. For some the medium brown can have a bit of reddish tinge. I could see Blizzard just amping up the saturation to get what we see in Eversong Woods. The cats in game have the tufts of hair on the ears and the extra scruff around the face. Their tails a a little long for true Lynx, though.

I might have wandered too close to this one. Good thing he was 16 and I'm 90. I just walked away.

lynx lynx - Joachim S. Muller - flickrcc

lynx lynx carpathica - Joachim S. Muller - flickrcc

Lynx - Nutxlago - flickrcc

Snow Leopards

Loque'nahak is one of the most unique looking of the rare pets. Not only is it a spirit beast, but he's based on a completely different cat species from every other cat in the game. The only other one is Har'koa, one of the Loa goddesses of the Drakkari.

Super secretive, living in some of the harshest climates in the world, can pursue a mountain goat down a vertical mountainside...these guys are tough but oh so graceful. They live in the rocky mountain ranges of Central and South Asia - we're talking elevations around 10,000-18,000 feet above sea level. They estimate there are less than 7,000 on the planet.

Thank you Wrath expansion for bringing these guys into the game.

p.s. did I mention they are awesome!

Snow Leopard (Panthera uncia)

Snow Leopards are one of my favorite cats and here is some amazing video of them. If you watch the beginning the leopard does the long stretch of her front leg and then yawns just like the cats doing game. The second half of the video shows a leopard chasing after a mountain goat. Their agility and balance and toughness are just amazing.

Sabertooth cats

Their hunched backs, the enlarged canines, the use of the word "saber" in their names all point to Blizzard using the Sabertooth Cat as a basis for numerous in-game species. This extinct family related to felines were found worldwide from the Eocene Epoch to the end of the Pleistocene Epoch (42 mya—11,000 years ago.) The use of this cat design, along with mammoths and dire wolves, supports my theory that Azeroth would be a lot like Earth without any of its numerous major extinction events.